Deep Politics Timeline

[Tracy Riddle]

• Summer 1962 Johnny Rosselli goes on two mission attempts to reach Cuba. Both fail, with the second resulting in his boat sinking. (Rosseli to Jack Anderson and Les Whitten, Jimmy Breslin, and his own attorneys; Rappleye and Becker pp 224-25)
  
• Summer 1962 The president's friend Paul Fay, Jr., told of an incident that showed JFK was keenly conscious of the peril of a military coup d'etat. One late summer weekend in 1962 while out sailing with friends, Kennedy was asked what he thought of Seven Days in May, a best-selling novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II that described a military takeover in the United States. JFK said he would read the book. He did so that night. The next day Kennedy discussed with his friends the possibility of their seeing such a coup in the United States. Consider that he said these words after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and before the Cuban Missile Crisis: " It's possible. It could happen in this country, but the conditions would have to be just right. If, for example, the country had a young President, and he had a Bay of Pigs, there would be a certain uneasiness. Maybe the military would do a little criticizing behind his back, but this would be written off as the usual military dissatisfaction with civilian control. Then if there were another Bay of Pigs, the reaction of the country would be, 'Is he too young and inexperienced ? ' The military would almost feel that it was their patriotic obligation to stand ready to preserve the integrity of the nation, and only God knows just what segment of democracy they would be defending if they overthrew the elected establishment. " Pausing a moment, he went on, "Then, if there were a third Bay of Pigs, it could happen. " Waiting again until his listeners absorbed his meaning, he concluded with an old Navy phrase, " But it won't happen on my watch. " (Fay, The Pleasure of His Company 190) According to David Talbot, the book was published in September 1962 and JFK had received an advance copy from Knebel in late summer. (Brothers) Knebel said he got the idea for the book after interviewing Curtis LeMay, who at one point went off the record to fume against Kennedy's "cowardice" at the Bay of Pigs. (NYT 2/28/1993) Kennedy quickly read the book and others in his inner circle did as well. JFK contacted director John Frankenheimer, who had been working on The Manchurian Candidate (another Cold War thriller JFK was a huge fan of) and encouraged him to turn Seven Days into a film. "Kennedy wanted Seven Days in May to be made as a warning to the generals," recalled Arthur Schlesinger. "The president said the first thing I'm going to tell my successor is Don't trust the military men even on military matters." (Talbot interview with Schlesinger, Brothers). Sinatra had gotten Kennedy to intervene with United Artists to get The Manchurian Candidate made, when the studio began to get cold feet. (Sinatra interview, 1988 video release) Kirk Douglas' production company acquired the rights to the novel even before it was published. (Brothers, Talbot)
  
• 6/1962 Economic sanctions were hitting Cuba; protests over shortages grew. This month, Raul Castro and Che Guevara flew secretly to Moscow.
  
• 6/1962 Pentagon spokesman admitted that "several thousand" US military men were in Vietnam on "temporary duty." US forces in Vietnam numbered 8000.
  
• 6/1/1962 In the Weekly Crusader, Billy James Hargis wrote that "This nation today is in the hands of a group of Harvard radicals who have long ago been hooked' by the insidious dope of socialism and view human life from the international standpoint…They are a dangerous scourge - and they are so deeply entrenched in power that they can be removed only by a nationwide upsurge of conservatism - which, please God, will come in the elections of next November. It makes no difference that these Harvard eggheads call themselves Democrats or Republicans. This had now become a distinction without a difference. They are liberals; liberals are socialists; and Khrushchev himself said that socialism is the first phase of communism.'"
  
• 6/1/1962 The US State Dept loaned the Oswalds $435.71 to meet their travel expenses; Oswald signed a promissory note for the money today. He also had $200 he had saved, and this gave him just enough for cheap train and sea travel back to the States. A "lookout card" should have been prepared for him; they are routinely prepared when such loans are made as a guarantee against default by the borrower. But no such card was ever prepared, and the WC fell back on the explanation that there was an error or misunderstanding. (WR 772) Gerald Posner supports this explanation, and says that the loan was approved because of a State Dept clause that covered special situations that are "damaging to the prestige of the United States Government." (Case Closed p73) Before getting this loan, Oswald had tried to obtain funds from non-governmental groups. One was the International Rescue Committee, Inc., which described itself as a "strongly anti-Communist organization." (CE 2766) This day the Oswalds left for Rotterdam by train, where they picked up a ship to the US. (CE 1114-5, CE 1099) Marina's passport was stamped at Helmstedt, West Germany, but Oswald's passport had no stamp. Posner says: "a comparison of the visa stamps at border crossings shows the Oswald entered and exited Poland, Germany and the Netherlands together. They share the same visa stamps, with the exception that his passport is not marked on the entry to the West, at Helmstedt." (Case Closed 74; CE 29, CE 946) Marina said that he was never out of her sight during that time: "We traveled by train to Rotterdam...and he didn't leave...He was present all the time...he was with me all the time." (HSCA 2 288-9) She told the HSCA that they stayed at a cheap boardinghouse in Rotterdam. In her diary, Marina recalled staying in a "private apartment" for three days in Amsterdam, not two days in a hotel as the WC said. (H 18 615)
  
• 6/4/1962 The Oswalds sail for NY aboard the Holland-America liner SS Maasdam. Marina recalled that during their 9-day voyage, they rarely went on deck because she was poorly dressed and Oswald was ashamed of her. Sometimes they argued on the trip. (Marina and Lee p191-2) Probably on the Maasdam, Oswald wrote some notes on ship's stationery (H 16 106-22,441) which included his first mention of Gen. Walker: "The case of Gen. Walker shows that the army, at least, is not fertail enough groun for a far right regime to go a very long way." He believes that the Marine Corps is capable of launching a coup against the government. He also reveals his disillusionment with both capitalism and communism: "as history has shown time again the state remains and grows whereas true democracy can be practiced only at the local level…I have lived under both systems, I have sought the answers and although it would be very easy to dupe myself into believing one system is better than the other, I know they are not."
  
• 6/4/1962 Venezuelan government puts down another Castro-inspired revolt, at the naval base of Puerto Cabello by some 500 Marines supported by students from the University of Caracas. At the height of the fighting 6/3, Radio Havana urged Venezuelans to join the revolt.
  
• 6/7/1962 JFK said he would seek an "across-the-board" tax cut in 1963.
  
• 6/7/1962 Two CIA agents die while trying to enter Cuba through Baracoa, in the island's eastern-most province.
  
• 6/7/1962 French OAS set off bombs and fires in many Algerian buildings, including the University of Algiers.
  
• 6/8/1962 New York News and Fort Worth Star Telegram report that Oswald is on his way home, and says that in Oct 1959, when Oswald visited his family, "he talked optimistically about the future. Some of his plans had included going to college, writing a book, or joining Castro's Cuban army." The Star-Telegram also reports on Oswald's departure from USSR.
  
• 6/8/1962 In mid-1962 the tone of LIFE's examination of Kennedy's domestic policy changed, and he was criticized for treating economic problems as 'technical' problems, thereby giving too little attention to the overall importance of economic 'freedom'. (LIFE, June 8, 1962, 'How to Put More Zing in the Economy', p4) In keeping with its normal rhetoric, LIFE accused Kennedy of interfering with the free flow of international investments with his proposal to increase taxes on purchases by Americans of foreign securities." (Life, August 2, 1963, 'Misery with the Dollar or Happiness?, p.4)
  
• 6/9/1962 Article appeared in the Washington Post on page A7 titled, "Third American in 2 months Leaves Soviet Union." This article described the return of 3 American "defectors" to the United States-Lee Harvey Oswald, Robert Webster and David Johnson.
  
• 6/9/1962 NSAM 161 to the Secretaries of State, Defense, Treasury, Commerce, Attorney General, CIA director, Military Rep. of the President, FAA administrator, AEC chairman. "SUBJECT: US Internal Security Programs. 1.In line with my continuing efforts to give primary responsibility for the initiative on major matters of policy and administration in a given field to a key member of my administration, I will look to the Attorney General to take the initiative in the government in insuring the development of plans, programs and action proposals to protect the internal security of the United States. I will expect him to prepare recommendations in collaboration with other departments and agencies in the government having the responsibility for internal security programs with respect to those matters requiring presidential action. 2.Accordingly, I have directed that the two interdepartmental committees concerned with the internal security - the Interdepartmental Intelligence Conference (IIC) and the Interdepartmental Committee on Internal Security (ICIS) - which have been under the supervision of the National Security Council will be transferred to the supervision of the Attorney General....signed, John F. Kennedy." A copy of this NSAM was sent to J Edgar Hoover.
  
• 6/10/1962 Khrushchev ordered beefing up of Soviet combat forces in Cuba, including the secret transport of missiles to the island.
  
• 6/11/1962 JFK, in a speech at Yale, attacked fiscal conservatives for refusing to see the need for more economic growth. The national debt had grown 8% since WWII, but at the state and local level, government debt had grown 378% and private debt 305% during the same time. He said that deficit spending by the federal government was not necessarily inflationary. He also said, "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie-deliberate, contrived and dishonest-but the myth-persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."
  
• 6/11-15/1962 Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) hold their first national convention in Port Huron, Michigan.
  
• 6/11/1962 Laos: a cease-fire and coalition government is agreed to.
  
• 6/12/1962 A United Artists executive, Robert Blumofe, says in a letter to Edward Lewis that he declined to consider making a film of the book Seven Days in May because of the negative image it might project abroad "and the inevitable and implacable opposition of the military." "If…the Executive branch of the Government were to encourage the making of this film, I'd certainly be happy to reconsider it with you at that time," he wrote.
  
• 6/13/1962 Lee Harvey Oswald returned to the United States after his defection to the Soviet Union. He was not met by arrest and prosecution. Nor was he confronted in any way by the government he had betrayed. Instead Oswald was welcomed by order of the U.S. government, as he and his Russian wife Marina disembarked with their infant daughter June from the ocean liner Maasdam in Hoboken, New Jersey. The Warren Report tells us that, on the recommendation of the State Department, the Oswalds were greeted at the dock by Spas T. Raikin, a representative of the Traveler's Aid Society. The Warren Report does not mention, however, that Raikin was at the same time secretary-general of the American Friends of the Anti-Bolshevik Nations, an anti-communist organization with extensive intelligence connections - like the American government, an unlikely source of support for a traitor. The Warren Report does say that, with Spas T. Raikin's help, the Oswald family passed smoothly through immigration and customs. Robert Oswald wired them $200 and the next day flew to Texas. Marina claimed that Oswald had expected many reporters to be present when they arrived in the US, and was disappointed when there were none in either New York or Texas. (Marina and Lee 215-6; HSCA 2 220,280) Robert and his family met them at the Fort Worth airport; he recalled, "He seemed, perhaps the word is, disappointed, when there were no newspaper reporters around...I believe his comment was something, 'What, no photographer or anything?'" (H 1 331) Oswald had wanted to tell the press that the US and USSR were both messed up; he later wrote his own questions and answers, the ones he had hoped to be asked. He wrote two sets, one truthful and one false. (CE 100, H 16 436-39) In notes he had written during the voyage home, he attacked both the US and Soviet Union: "I despise the representatives of both systems weather they be socialist or cristan democrates, weath they be labor or conservative they are all products of the two systems." (CE 25) In a draft of a speech he wrote: "In returning to the US I have done nothing more or less than select the lesser of two evils." (CE 102) He also speculated about the possible effects of anarchy. (CE 25) Gerald Posner concludes, "His rebellious convictions against government and authority were slowly evolving toward violence and revolution."
  
• 6/13/1962 Hoover memo to Asst Directors; he reported that LBJ was worried about rumors about "a tape which purported to be an interview between a newspaper man and Estes' partner in which Estes' partner said Mrs. Lyndon Johnson lent $5,000,000 to Estes, and a lot of stories..."
  
• 6/12-13/1962 Panama's President Roberto Francisco Chiari visited Kennedy 6/12-13/1962 to discuss the Panama Canal, and how Panamanians wanted to have more control over it. 1963 riots between citizens of Panama and Americans living in the canal zone over whose flag should fly there. During four days of street fighting 24 Panamanians and 4 US soldiers died. Secretary of State Dean Rusk announced that Cuba-trained communists were behind the trouble. Panamanian desire for control of the canal was seen as part of a Soviet-inspired plot. The US couldn't understand that this event was stirred by nationalist feelings on the part of the Panamanians; all that Americans could worry about was having "a country with one-third the population of Chicago kick us around. If we crumble in Panama, the reverberations of our actions will be felt around the world." (Sen. Everett Dirksen).
  
• 6/14/1962 The State Dept. writes a memo (partially redacted) regarding Operation Mongoose: "Spontaneous Revolts in Cuba Contingency Planning" stating: The purpose of this plan is to define the courses of action to be pursued by affected agencies of the US Government in the event that a decision is made that the United States undertake military intervention in Cuba. (362. Memorandum From the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale) to the Special Group (Augmented,) Foreign Relations Of The United States 1961-1963 Volume X, Cuba, 1961-1962)
  
• 6/14/1962 Oswalds' plane lands at Love Field, Dallas; they are met by Robert and Vada, and brought to Robert's house in Fort Worth. After returning from Russia, they stayed briefly with his brother Robert; the brothers got along well, almost as though Oswald had "not been to Russia." (H 1 312) Robert and his wife, Vada, showed Marina the sights in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Marguerite Oswald showed up and told Lee that she wanted to write about his defection; Lee complained to Marina: "She thinks that she did it all. She thinks she's the one who got us out." (Marina and Lee p220) Several journalists called on Oswald at Robert's house, but he refused to meet with them, since he was still upset that no one had met him at the airport. The Oswalds were welcomed by a local White Russian community characterized by its pronounced anti-communist view of the world. Lee was befriended by George de Mohrenschildt, the son of a czarist official. "The Baron," as he liked to be called, traveled around the world as a geologist, consulting for Texas oil companies and doubling as an intelligence asset. In 1957 the CIA's Richard Helms wrote a memo saying that de Mohrenschildt, after making a trip as a consultant in Yugoslavia, provided the CIA with " foreign intelligence which was promptly disseminated to other federal agencies in 10 separate reports. " De Mohrenschildt would admit in a 1977 interview that he had been given a go-ahead to meet Oswald by J. Walton Moore, the Dallas CIA Domestic Contacts Service chief. (Epstein, Assassination Chronicles) None of George de Mohrenschildt's extensive U.S. intelligence connections are mentioned in the Warren Report, which describes him vaguely as "a highly individualistic person of varied interests" who befriended Oswald. Relying on U.S. intelligence for its questions and answers, the Report concludes concerning George and his wife, Jeanne de Mohrenschildt: "Neither the FBI, CIA, nor any witness contacted by the Commission has provided any information linking the de Mohrenschildts to subversive or extremist organizations. " New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison identified de Mohrenschildt as one of Oswald's CIA "baby-sitters," " assigned to protect or otherwise see to the general welfare of a particular individual. " Garrison concluded from his conversations with George and Jeanne de Mohrenschildt that the Baron was in some sense an unwitting baby-sitter, without foreknowledge of what was in store for the "baby" in his custody. Both de Mohrenschildts, Garrison said, were vigorous in their insistence to him that Oswald had been the assassination scapegoat. (On the Trail of the Assassins) Though he had been Oswald's CIA-approved shepherd in Dallas, George de Mohrenschildt had no " need to know, " and thus probably no understanding in advance of the scapegoat role that lay ahead for his young friend. In the years after John Kennedy and Lee Oswald were gunned down, the de Mohrenschildts seemed to grow in remorse for the evil in which they had become enmeshed. Jim Garrison said, "I was particularly affected by the depth of their unhappiness at what had been done not only to John Kennedy but to Lee Oswald as well. "
  
• 6/15/1962 De Gaulle assassination attempt.
  
• 6/16/1962 Two US Army officers were killed in an ambush by guerillas north of Saigon.
  
• 6/17-18/1962 Chicago Tribune's Washington Correspondent Willard Edwards revealed in a two-part article that Rostow's view in the State Department was that the USSR was no longer aggressive and that the US had to show its peaceful intentions.
  
• 6/18/1962 Oswald met with stenographer Pauline Bates; she began typing up his notes on Russia for an article he wanted to publish. Either this afternoon or the next morning, he visits the Texas Employment Agency and/or the Fort Worth Library, where he acquires the name and phone number of Peter Paul Gregory.
  
• 6/19/1962 JFK wrote a memo to the Secretary of State expressing concern about the amount of money being spent on lavish US embassies and official homes in poor countries: "I feel that excessive expenditures for such a residence will make us look ridiculous in the eyes of the people in the countries concerned... I believe that embassy residences should present an image of dignity and charm without being ostentatious or luxurious."
  
• 6/19/1962 Oswald phones Gregory this morning and came to his office at 11am. He gave Oswald a test and found that he had "a good knowledge of the Russian language." (H 16 976) Oswald spends the afternoon with Mrs. Bates.
  
• 6/19/1962 Khrushchev, in Rumania, predicted that "the United States will eventually fly the Communist Red Flag...the American people will hoist it themselves."
  
• 6/20/1962 Mrs. Bates remembered that today Oswald seemed different, "real nervous and excited-like." Oswald halts work on the manuscript, claiming he has no more money. She offered to keep working for free, but he refused.
  
• 6/21/1962 Rosselli reports to William Harvey that Varona had dispatched a "three-man team" to Cuba. Harvey felt they would accomplish little and had no specific plan. (Church report)
  
• 6/21/1962 JFK's farm bill was killed in the House.
  
• 6/21/1962 A federal grand jury in El Paso handed up a new 29-count indictment against Billie Sol Estes.
  
• 6/22/1962 Cartha DeLoach memo to John Mohr; LBJ was upset about "false allegations" made in an editorial in the 7/1962 issue of Farm and Ranch Magazine "and would deeply appreciate the Director having FBI agents interview the editor..." The allegations concerned an alleged meeting he had with Estes 4/28/1962 in Midland, Texas, though Johnson claimed he was at the White House. "The Vice President...could clearly state for the record that neither he nor any member of his family...had ever had any connection whatsoever with Billie Sol Estes..."
  
• 6/24/1962 Oswald supposedly first hit Marina in an argument on this day, and threatened to kill her. Marina then wandered the neighborhood for two hours, shocked and wondering what to do. (Marina and Lee p225-27)
  
• 6/25/1962 Supreme Court handed down Engel vs. Vitale, ruled that reading of an official prayer in the public schools (in this case New York) was unconstitutional. The reaction from conservatives was deafening. Rep. George Grant (D-Alabama) raged, "They put the Negroes in the schools and now they've driven God out of them." Cardinal Francis Spellman, Billy Graham, Herbert Hoover, and liberal Episcopalian bishop James A. Pike condemned it. The case was brought by the families of public school students in New Hyde Park, New York who complained that the voluntary prayer to "Almighty God" contradicted their religious beliefs. They were supported by groups opposed to the school prayer including rabbinical organizations, Ethical Culture, and Judaic organizations. The court also struck down a California law making it a crime to be a drug addict.
  
• 6/26/1962 FBI agents Burnett Tom Carter and John W. Fain contacted Lee Oswald at Robert's house, and said they wanted to see him at their Fort Worth office. When he arrived, "Oswald declined to answer the question as to why he had made the trip to Russia in the first place. In a show of temper, he stated he did not care to relive the past.' During most of the interview, Oswald displayed an impatient and arrogant attitude." He finally claimed that he went to the USSR only because he wanted to see the country, not because he disliked the US. "Oswald denied that he at any time while in Russia had offered to reveal to the Soviets any of the information he had acquired as a radar operator in the US Marines…Oswald stated that in the event he is contacted by Soviet intelligence under suspicious circumstances or otherwise, he will promptly communicate with the FBI. He stated that he holds no brief for the Russians or the Russian system." (H 17 728-29) Oswald was never officially debriefed by the CIA, though CIA document #1004-400 shows that their Domestic Contact Division debriefed an average of 25,000 tourists a year 1959-63. Posner explains why the CIA did not debrief him: the HSCA "discovered that while the CIA's Domestic Contact Division considered interviewing him, it finally decided against it, since he was of 'marginal importance.' Between 1958 and 1963, the CIA did not automatically debrief returning defectors, instead allowing the FBI to report significant results from its interviews. Of the twenty-two American defectors who returned to the US during those five years, the CIA only interviewed four, and all interviews related to particular intelligence matters." (Case Closed 79; he gives no source for this information.) Marguerite announced that she had given up her job and rented a small Fort Worth apartment, where she planned to live with Lee and Marina. Robert recalled that Lee was "not overjoyed" by the idea, "but mother had made up her mind, and when she made up her mind nobody could change it." (Lee p121)
  
• 6/28/1962 House passed Kennedy's foreign trade bill by 298 to 125; it would give the president very broad tariff-cutting powers.
  
• 6/28/1962 Rep. Mendel Rivers (D-South Carolina) fumed about the recent Supreme Court ruling: "I know of nothing in my lifetime that would give more aid and comfort to Moscow than this bold, malicious, atheistic, and sacrilegious twist by this unpredictable group of uncontrolled despots."
  
• 6/28/1962 NYT quoted JFK defending the school prayer ruling; he said a "very easy remedy" for the absence of prayer in the schools was more prayer at home and more church attendance.
  
• 6/29/1962 JFK and Jackie paid a state visit to Mexico. JFK and president Mateos were showered with confetti in a motorcade in Mexico City. They are in Mexico through July 1.
  
• 6/30/1962 US government ended its fiscal year with a deficit of $7 billion; this would be re-adjusted to $6.3 billion in July.
  
• 6/30/1962 The US Chamber of Commerce suddenly dropped its demand for a balanced budget as the primary aim of the federal government and instead recommended an immediate $7.5-$10 billion tax cut to spur the economy. (NY Times)
  
• 6/30/1962 In Mexico, JFK announced a $20 million agricultural loan to that country.